The mycotoxin zearalenone couples secondary metabolism to N-acetylglucosamine catabolism

Zearalenone production in Fusarium graminearum is functionally coupled to N-acetylglucosamine catabolism, with NAG as a critical node for GlcNAc utilization and growth.

• Why it matters: Secondary metabolite output is often treated as terminal, but how it reshapes the producer’s nutrient metabolism and fitness is unclear.
• What they did: Transcriptome profiling of a ZEB2-overexpressing strain showed GlcNAc metabolic enrichment, and adding exogenous ZEA induced key catabolic genes independently of Zeb2. NAG (GlcNAc-6-phosphate deacetylase) was required for GlcNAc utilization; NAG loss caused severe GlcNAc-dependent growth inhibition, and NAG impairment was poorly tolerated under elevated ZEA pathway activity.
• The result: Increasing NAG expression improved tolerance to exogenous ZEA and rescued the growth defect from ZEB2 overexpression, indicating ZEA-linked metabolic remodeling supports producer fitness.

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